Changes of Heart
by Reading Redhead
Summary: COMPLETE! (Most likely) Dairine is fed up with Nita, who just can't seem to recognize her feelings for Kit. So Dairine decides to "help" her older sister out a bit. KN (because who doesn't love our favorite couple)
1. Just Say It

Disclaimer:  None of this is mine except for the plot and the arrangement of words on the page (or computer screen, more correctly).  The heart of the Young Wizards universe belongs to Diane Duane; I'm just playing in it.

A/N:  No, this will not be a one-shot!  Amazing, I know.  I actually talked myself into doing a chaptered fic.  The chapters won't necessarily be long, and there probably won't be too many by the time I'm done (about five or six, I think), but it will have a complete plot, one that I've already got in my head.  I think that's it for now, so please, read and review!

Changes of Heart

**Chapter 1: Just Say It**

            Nita Callahan walked into her house, slinging her backpack aside and feeling very glad that it was a weekend.  The past week had been hectic, giving her little time to relax, but she intended to spend the next two days doing absolutely nothing.

            _Well, not quite nothing_, she thought as she walked into the kitchen, looking for something to snack on.  After all, there was that thing with the worldgates in the city; she and Kit would have to take care of that tomorrow.  One of the gates at Grand Central had been malfunctioning again, and though it posed no immediate danger,  Rhiow had felt it important enough to warrant a trip Downside.  The head of the gating team knew Nita and Kit, having worked with them before, and had asked if they would supervise the home side of the gate while she and the rest of her team did repairs in that other universe.  Of course Nita and Kit had agreed to help their fellow wizards.

            Still, that left most of Saturday and all of Sunday free for Nita to spend lazing around the house.  _Maybe I'll finally get a chance to finish that book I started last month_, she thought, pulling a carton of milk out of the refrigerator and pouring herself a glass.  She sat, sipping her milk and pondering the nearly endless possibilities of what she could do with her free time.

            The silence did not last.  Dairine burst through the front door, her usual noisy self, dropping her things in the hallway and heading for the kitchen.  She walked in, reading a flyer she held in her hands.  She held it up, showing her sister.  "You going?" she asked nonchalantly.

            Nita took another swallow of milk and looked at the flyer.  She had seen them around her high school, proclaiming the spring dance to be held in a few weeks.  She had no idea where Dairine could have obtained the paper, but then Nita remembered that she'd been handed one in homeroom.  She'd thrust that copy into her backpack, intending to throw it away, but it must have slipped out of her bag.

            Nita turned to Dairine, who was now looking through the cupboards.  "You must not have read the paper too well," she said.  "It's a Sadie Hawkins dance.  Girls ask guys.  And besides," Nita said, "who would I go with?"

            Dairine found what she'd been looking for, a container holding the last of the chocolate chip cookies, and as she put several onto a plate, she said matter-of-factly, "You could ask Kit."

            The mere suggestion was enough to elicit a number of reactions from Nita.  "_What?_" she said, almost wanting to laugh, sure that Dairine would turn to face her and be smiling at the joke.

            Dairine did turn to face Nita, but there was no smile on her face, no indication that she'd been kidding about her previous statement.

            "You can't be serious," Nita said incredulously.  "He's _Kit_.  And besides," she said, "he's my _friend_."  _And partner,_ a piece of her brain added silently without Nita's permission.

            Dairine looked back at Nita with an expression that clearly told her to cut the crap.  "You can tell that to him, you can tell it to Dad, you can tell it to me—but can you honestly say that to yourself?"  The look in her eyes was a daring one.

            "Of course I can!" Nita said, annoyed with her little sister.  "I don't like Kit; he's just a friend!"  She looked at Dairine.  "Happy now?"

            Her sister met her glare with equal force.  She stared at Nita for a minute before speaking in a tone of superior calm.  "Say it in the Speech."  She picked up the plate with her cookies and walked out of the kitchen.

            Nita sat in silence, digesting the conversation she and her sister had just shared.  The flyer for the dance still sat on the kitchen table.  _Why am I letting Dairine get to me about this?_ she asked herself.  _I know how I feel._

            But did she?  If what she had said was the truth—that she and Kit were friends, albeit good friends, and nothing more—why did the thought of stating so in the Speech make her stomach turn?  Why hadn't she just proclaimed in that wizardly language what Dairine had told her to?

            _Scared of a younger sister?_ Nita asked herself as she went to the sink and rinsed out the empty milk glass.  A year or two ago, Nita would have had reason to be scared of her sibling.  Dairine had come into wizardry with a bang, one whose echoes still reverberated through many universes.  But with that colossal start had come the inevitable decline in power.  Dairine's levels were now pretty much even with Nita's, and if it came to a match between wizards, Nita had enough experience to best her sister.

            There was no reason for it to come to that, though.  Nita stuck the glass in the dishwasher and let out an exasperated sigh.  Her sister might be annoying, but that was no reason to pull out the big guns.

            _But if this keeps up_, Nita thought, _I'm definitely reaching for the small ones.  I wonder if Carmela still has that laser dissociater that looks like a curling iron…_

            Nita smiled, gathered her school things, and went up to her room.


	2. Necessary Modifications

A/N:  Chapter two is up!  I'm trying to update this as much as I can before Saturday because I have relatives flying in and staying for two weeks, during which time I probably won't have many chances to write.  I'll try to get one more chapter up before then, and it will most likely be longer than this one (but that's not a promise).

Oh, and thanks to all who took the time to review!  Yes, Kit _will_ be coming into the picture in the next chapter, and Dairine's trying to get Nita to acknowledge her feelings because Dairine's not stupid—she knows that Kit and Nita are more of a couple that they'll admit.  Now that that's settled, on to the story!

**Chapter 2: Necessary Modifications**

            Dairine let out an exasperated groan as she walked into her room, shut the door with a bang, and flopped down on her bed.  How could her sister be so blind?  Dairine knew that Nita liked Kit, and as more than a friend.  Nita and Kit had been wizarding partners for the better part of three years and had gone through more together than Dairine even knew about.  There was no way that they didn't have feelings for each other, after all of that.

            And still, Nita continued to deny it.  Dairine could somewhat understand this; she supposed that Nita might be afraid that a romantic relationship with Kit might endanger their partnership—or worse, their friendship.  _Still_, Dairine thought, _even if it didn't work out, they're good enough friends now that they could break up and still stay friends afterwards._

            She sighed and got up from her bed.  Never before had Dairine bothered her sister about Kit, but she felt it was a long time coming.  And that flyer had so conveniently appeared…  Dairine would have been foolish to pass up such an opportunity.

            Shrugging those thoughts aside, she unzipped her backpack and Spot came scuttling out on his spidery little legs.  Dairine lifted him up and set him on her desk after pushing the mess of blank CDs and assorted papers aside.  She flipped up his screen, thinking that she would write that essay for English to get it out of the way, but before she could open her word processor, a reminder popped up on the screen: "Pull April Fool's prank on Nita."

            Dairine smiled, a scheming smile that Nita said made her look like the cat that's just eaten the canary.  "Spot," she said, "what's today's date?  On the Gregorian calendar?" she hastily added, remembering that the manual expressed all Earth timing using the Julian calendar.

            _March thirty-first_, Spot replied, and Dairine heard behind his words a tonal equivalent of her smile.

            "Ooh, is Nita ever in for it.  Big time," Dairine said to herself, the evil grin still plastered to her face.

            Dairine had always been one for making trouble.  She's always loved pulling pranks on her sister, and when they had been younger, she and Nita had had pranking wars.  Dairine would always win; her jokes were more elegant, whereas Nita's were average.  Now those days were gone, but Dairine still tried to pull off something for April Fool's, when she had an excuse.

            Now all she had to do was think up a really, really good prank.  She sorted through a list of possibilities in her head, crossing them all off of her mental list.  Though it pained her to admit it, she was out of ideas.

            Dairine let out a frustrated sigh.  "Any ideas for a prank I could pull on Nita?" she asked Spot, not really expecting a response.

            _Trying to get her back for anything in particular?_ he asked.

            Dairine thought about that.  "No, not really," she said.  "But I want it to be good.  She's just bugging me right now!"

            _You tried to talk to her about Kit again,_ Spot said, his phrasing somewhere between a statement and a question.

            "Uh huh," Dairine said.  "But she just won't see reason.  I _know_ she's got feelings for him, but she won't admit it."

            _And you can't make her._

            "No—" Dairine started, but then her eyes lit up and her smile rekindled.  "Maybe I can…"

————————————————————————

            The digital clock beside her bed read eleven thirty at night before Dairine was convinced that her dad and sister were asleep.  Quietly, she got out of bed, grabbed Spot's case from her desk, and walked out of the room.  She descended the stairs, taking care to skip the third step from the bottom, which had a tendency to creak noisily, and shoved her feet into her tennis shoes, not bothering to untie them.  Still in silence, she slid out the door into the backyard.

            Though it was almost spring, the night air was cold, and Dairine took no time in getting to her destination.  She set down Spot in font of the birdbath in the yard, cracked her knuckles, and started her work.

            Her plan wasn't a terribly difficult one to implement.  All it required was a knowledge of the target—Nita—and a little bit of wizardry.  Dairine felt around in the open air above the birdbath, while at the same time uttering a single word in the Speech.  Immediately, her fingers found a tab of air.  Dairine smiled; this was even easier than she'd thought it would be.  Supremely confident, she gave the tab a pull.

            It wouldn't budge.  _So Nita's smarter than I gave her credit for,_ Dairine thought, approvingly.  _She's still not smarter than me._ 

            "Spot?" Dairine whispered into the night. 

            Her computer popped up two stalked eyes to look at her with.  _Yes?_

            "Do you have the spell ready?"

            In response, Spot flipped up his screen which was covered with the tracery of characters in the Speech.  With one hand still on the tab, Dairine knelt down and read from the screen.

            It was quick and dirty, as spells went, but with its own compact eloquence.  Dairine finished reading it and tried the tab again.  This time it slid open, though not as smoothly as it should have and more like an old and rusty zipper.

            Dairine didn't care.  She reached one hand in through the opening into Nita's otherspace pocket, fumbling around and trying to find what she was looking for.  After much time spent pulling things out and returning them when they were not what she was looking for, Dairine seized upon the object of her search.

            She pulled it out, a wound-up ball of compacted light.  With a flick of Dairine's wrist it unfurled, displaying a long series of characters in the Speech: Nita's name.

            Dairine quickly skimmed through it until she came to the part that described personal relationships.  Here, she examined the writing carefully before turning to Spot.  "Ready to make some changes?" she asked.

            Spot's hard drives whirred in response, and the two of them began to work.


	3. April Fool's!

A/N:  I'm back!  Sorry if I've kept anyone waiting, but I haven't had time to write with my relatives over.  Also, I know it's not very long, but I needed to post something.  Another reason why it's taken me so long is that this chapter was originally larger, and a bit different, but I realized that it didn't really do anything for plot, so I cut a bit off of the end.  That stuff will be showing up at the beginning of chapter four.  Thanks to all who have read and reviewed so far; I really appreciate it and hope you continue!

**Chapter 3: April Fool's!**

            Light streaming in through Nita's window woke her up.  She stretched and yawned, not wanting to leave the comfort of her bed.  _Maybe I'll just go back to sleep_, she thought.  _After all, it is a Saturday._

            Something about that last thought made Nita blink her eyes open.  It was Saturday, and she was supposed to be meeting Kit at his house around ten so that the two of them could transport over to Grand Central to help the gating team.  Struggling to sit upright in her bed, Nita glanced at her alarm clock.

            "Nine thirty!" she said, incredulous.  She was not generally one for sleeping in.  Hastily she got up out of bed and dashed to the bathroom, where she washed her face and pulled her hair back into a ponytail before running back to her room and pulling on jeans and a t-shirt.  Nita grabbed her manual from its spot on the dresser and thundered downstairs into the kitchen, where her sister was sitting at the table reading the comics section of the paper.

            "Why are you in such a hurry?" Dairine asked as Nita grabbed two slices of bread from the loaf on the counter and put them in the toaster.

            "I'm supposed to be meeting Kit in fifteen minutes," she replied, taking out some jelly and a spoon to spread it with.

            "Business?" Dairine queried, a bit too innocently for Nita's liking. 

            Nita responded by tossing her manual down on the kitchen table.  "Rhiow wants our help at Grand Central.  Basic gate maintenance, but they don't want to take any chances."  The toaster popped the slices of bread up, and Nita snagged them and put them on a plate.  "I'll probably be back before lunch, but if this takes more time, we'll just grab lunch in the city," she informed Dairine while putting jelly on her toast.

            Finished, Nita sat down at the table to eat.  She had just finished the first piece of toast and was about to start the second when the kitchen phone rang.  "I'll get it," she said.  "It's probably Kit."

            She picked up on the third ring and, sure enough, Kit was on the other end.  
            "Hello, is Nita there?" he asked.

            "Yeah, it's me," Nita said.

            "Why aren't you over here yet?  We shouldn't keep Rhiow and the rest waiting."

            Nita sighed into the phone.  "Long story.  Listen, go on ahead; I'll meet you there."

            "Okay," Kit said.  "Remember, we're meeting at the gate by track thirty."

            "Gotcha," Nita said, "see you there," and hung up.  She picked up the second piece of toast and started in on it while setting her plate in the sink.  When she finished her breakfast, Nita scooped up her manual, slipped on her shoes, and grabbed a light jacket from the closet before heading out into the back yard, slamming the door behind her.

            _It is _so_ nice that this is a weekend!_ Nita allowed herself to think as she made her way over to her otherspace pocket.  Most wizards, as they got further on in their Art, tended to accumulate spells and other useful bits and pieces.  Many of them, like Nita, stored these odds and ends in little pockets that "cheated" science by not existing in the physical world until the wizard wished it to appear.

            Since it didn't physically exist, Nita could technically access her pocket from wherever she was, but you had to anchor it to a certain location.  Accessing the cache from its anchor position required a single word in the Speech; accessing it from elsewhere required a full-blown spell, the complexity of which varied depending on how far you were from the anchor point, among other things. 

            Nita had anchored hers above the birdbath in the back yard, where she now came to a stop.  Reaching her hand out into the air, she said the appropriate word in the Speech and felt a tab of air form between her fingers.  She slid it from left to right and stuck her hand in through the "unzipped" space.  Familiar with the contents of her pocket, it only took her a few seconds to find what she was searching for, and she quickly withdrew a wand of greenish-white wood with the bark peeled off and a compact ball of tightly-wound writing in the Speech.

            The transit spell to Grand Central was, by now, a familiar one.  Without even bothering to take her manual out of her jacket pocket, she knelt down and inscribed a circle on the ground with the rowan wand.  She began to write and characters appeared, delicate traceries of light left in the wand's wake.  Nita finished writing the instruction part of the spell and, with a practiced flick of her wrist, unfurled the ball of Speech.  The glowing characters of her name looked back at her, and she glanced over them quickly before attaching them to the spell diagram.  Drawing the wizard's knot with her wand, she closed the spell circle, and began to read.

————————————————————————

            Dairine, who had watched through the kitchen window as Nita had opened her cache and removed her name for use in the transport spell, smiled.  Things were going better than she could have planned.  Now that Nita had used the modified version of her name in a spell, it wouldn't be long before her behavior began to reflect the changes.

            _The only bad thing,_ Dairine thought wistfully, _is that I can't sneak along and watch the mayhem unfold…and I don't get a chance to shout "April Fool's!" at her until she finds out._

            Dairine easily brushed the thoughts aside.  Nita would be finding out soon enough.  Smiling wickedly, she went back to reading the comics.


	4. Claws and Effects

A/N: I know, I know, another short chapter.  However, it does have a purpose within the story, which I'm sure you'll agree once you've read it.  I don't know when I'll have the next bit up, so I'm making no promises, but I intend to finish this before the end of the summer.  Also, what was originally intended to be five or six chapters has now turned into seven or eight with an epilogue, so don't worry that it's going to be over too soon.

Finally, I'd like to address a question posed by one of my reviewers, elfin2.  I'm aware that what Dairine does isn't the most ethical, but if you look at the Oath, it calls upon wizards to "guard growth and ease pain."  In my opinion, what Dairine does is a necessary evil.  Nita needs to recognize her feelings for Kit, and Dairine is kindly helping her.  What would happen if Nita didn't realize what Kit means to her until it's too late?  I think that certainly counts as pain, something that Dairine, as a wizard, is charged to ease.  It doesn't mean it will be painless, just less painful than the alternative.  Actually, I just kind of came up with that on the spot; I wasn't really considering ethics when I wrote this.  But I think my reasoning makes sense, and if it still doesn't, I ask you to suspend disbelief.  As usual, thanks for reading and reviewing, and on to the story!

**Chapter 4: Claws and Effects**

            Having been a wizard for some time, Nita was accustomed to the sound of a spell in progress: the noise of the workday world slowly tuning out, being replaced with the heavy silence that pressed in on the listeners as the universe took note of what it was being instructed to do, all of this bound into a whole by voices reciting the words in the Speech that would make it happen.  The air around Nita pressed in, willing her away from her backyard and to her destination.  The last glimpse of the backyard blinked out, and Nita appeared with a slight _pop!_ in a deserted section of the station feeling oddly disoriented.  She made a mental note to tweak the parameters of the spell later, then looked around.  The place the had appeared was technically within the terminal proper, but no longer in use.  This was convenient, because it meant that there was minimal security, nothing more than a few locked doors, and those intended to keep people from coming in, not from going out.

            _Piece of cake,_ Nita thought as she emerged into the bustle of the main concourse.  With familiarity born of nearly three years' wizardly travel through the station, she made her way towards the platform for track thirty, managing to look like another part of the crowd.  This wasn't hard, as a train was due to arrive at any minute, so people were thronging along the platform.

            In the crowd of people, Nita caught sight of a boy of about fourteen with dark hair and eyes wearing jeans and a t-shirt.  _He looks pretty good,_ Nita thought before she could realize what she was thinking.  Her mind immediately clamped down on that thought.  _What in the worlds has happened to me?_ Nita thought, shaking her head.  _It must have been the sleeping in_, she decided.  There was no way that particular thought had been voluntary.

            Nita turned her attention back to the present.  Kit was standing and talking to what would seem like the ground to a non-wizard.  To Nita's eyes, it was obvious that he was conversing with a small black cat with a spot of white under her chin.  Kit turned around as she approached, and the black cat turned as well.

            "_Dai stihó,_" Nita said to the cat.

            "May you go well too, cousin," Rhiow responded.  "I was just telling Khi-t the basics of what we're going to do today."

            "We're just on watch and redirect duty, right?" Nita asked.

            "Exactly," Rhiow said.  "This is a minor repair; we shouldn't be gone too long.  We'll actually be fixing the gate by track three, so once we're safely through, you should head over there to redirect any wizards who don't check the data in their manuals.  Tell them to use this gate.  We'll come back through the number three gate, to make sure it's working properly.  And here you are," she said, this directed at a grey tabby cat and smaller white cat with black patches.  "I thought you were just checking on the gate by track three!"

            "We got a little…sidetracked," the grey tabby, Urruah, said.  "It was his fault!" he quickly added, flicking his tail in the direction of the other cat who was barely out of kittenhood.

            The patched cat, who Nita recognized as Arhu, shrunk into the ground a bit as Rhiow looked to him with a gaze that clearly asked for an explanation.  Looking down at his paws, he said, "The man who owns the sandwich store was back.  He'd been gone.  I missed the pastrami."  His big eyes were enough to make Nita feel sorry for him.

            "And _I_ had to waste time reminding Arhu that we had a schedule to keep to," Urruah said. 

            Rhiow surveyed them both coolly before speaking.  "You're lucky this time.  We can't do anything until the track is free."  She indicated the train that had just pulled in.  "But I expect more punctuality from members of my team," she continued.  "What if you had kept our help waiting?"

            "I'm sorry," Arhu muttered, looking so adorable that Nita wanted to pick him up and cuddle him to her chest to hear him purr.  But Arhu would most definitely not have appreciated such attention, and so Nita restrained herself.

            "It's alright," she said instead, glad to see Arhu removed from Rhiow's scathing glare.  "We're here to help for as long as we're needed."

            "Thank you for your kindness, cousin," Rhiow said amiably enough, though the end of her tail twitched slightly, a sign that Nita knew meant trouble for Urruah and Arhu at some time in the future, if not at this moment. 

            There was a loud burst of sound as the train departed.  "What did you say?" Kit asked, looking at Rhiow once the noise was over and the train had proceeded far enough down the track that he could be heard.

            "We'll be leaving now," Rhiow repeated.  "Arhu, open the gate."

            With a bit of nervousness—Arhu must not have had too much practice performing in front of others—he walked to the edge of the platform, rearing up on his hind legs and sinking his front claws into what appeared as air that shimmered slightly.  He tugged, and all of a sudden a worldgate was visible in front of Nita and Kit, its surface shimmering like a soap bubble.  Nita could just catch a glimpse of a green field beyond, with large trees in the distance.

            Rhiow approved of Arhu's work with a less harsh flick of her tail, motioning for him to jump through.  After him went Urruah, and Rhiow followed behind, closing the wordgate from the other side.

            Which left Nita and Kit alone on the platform, Kit standing barely a foot from Nita.  _Why am I noticing that?_ Nita thought angrily.  _What has taken me over?_

            Kit's voice interrupted her confused thoughts.  "We'd better head over to the other gate.  Rhiow and the rest will give us a little time before they start work on the gate, but I don't want to take the chance that someone will try to use it for transit while they're messing around with its structure."  Kit grimaced, and began to walk back into the main concourse.  Nita followed, trying not to think about Kit and failing.

            _What has gotten into me?_ she thought, giving herself a mental shake.  _It's _Kit_, for crying out loud.  Just Kit!_  But this did nothing to help Nita sort out the thoughts that meandered dangerously through her head.  _When I find out who's responsible for this,_ she vowed silently,_ I will make them wish that they had never been born, spawned, or engendered!_

            Just then, a frightening thought surfaced, and Nita almost stopped walking, shocked. 

            _What if the person responsible for this is _me_?_


	5. Comfortably Confused

A/N: I seem to be making the short chapter thing a habit, don't I?  Well, it works, and anyway, I don't think I could have made this chapter much longer without it becoming too repetitive.  I intend to be updating this at least weekly from now on, if not more often, but we all know how intentions are, so at this point, it's more like I _hope_ to be updating that often.  In the meantime, you can always check out the other two fics I've written in the Young Wizards universe.

Thanks to all who've stuck with me!  I appreciate every one of your reviews.  If you're reading and haven't reviewed, I'd really love you to tell me what you think, even if it's just a few words.

**Chapter 5: Comfortably Confused**

            Sighing, Nita sank into a chair at one of the tables outside a small café in the terminal.  She and Kit had made their way to the gate that Rhiow and company were supposed to be fixing, and Nita had been prepared to spend a long time lingering near track three, pretending to wait for a train and warning traveling wizards to use a different worldgate.

            Kit, however, had had other plans.  When they'd arrived at the gate, he'd opened his manual and showed her a spell he'd worked up that would warn any wizard passing closer than a certain number of feet to the worldgate to use a different gate for the next few hours.  Nita had been impressed by the economy of the spell; it looked like it would have taken ages to write.  Acting as a lookout, she had listened to Kit recite the spell, reveling in the sound of his voice speaking the Speech with his familiar Spanish accent.  In the past, listening to Kit's voice speaking the words of a spell had been a comfort, reminding Nita of Kit's dependability, even in the worst of the situations they had seen.  But now, the listening had another dimension entirely, and Nita had found herself savoring every word he had said, sorry when the spell finished.

            Then, Nita had felt completely normal.  But now, sitting here and waiting for Rhiow and the rest to finish working on the gate and return, she wondered about her sudden change of emotions.  Hadn't it been just yesterday that she had argued with Dairine, insisting that she and kit were just friends?  Yet Nita was sure that she felt differently today than she had yesterday. 

            "Nita?  Hello?  Earth to Neets!"

            Nita looked up, realizing that Kit had been trying to get her attention, while at the same time furiously fighting off a blush.  Had it always sounded so sweet when Kit called her "Neets?"

            Shaking her head, as if that would rid it of the thoughts that kept falling through it, she said, "Sorry, just thinking."

            "S'okay," Kit said.  "I just wanted to know if you wanted anything," he gestured to the café.  "I'm going to get a drink."

            "No, I'm all right, thanks," she said, still partially lost in her thoughts.  Kit got in line to order, and Nita sank back into her musings.

            _How can this be happening to me?_ Nita thought, trying to analyze the situation.  She was not the type of person to change her mind about something overnight—especially not something as large as her feelings about Kit.  But she could not deny that a change of feelings had occurred.  She was definitely less comfortable around Kit today than she normally was, worrying about what she said, how she looked.  __

_            Thinking of looks, why couldn't I have thrown on something nicer to wear?_  Nita immediately clamped down on this thought, frustrated.  It was thoughts like this that kept catching her off-guard and making her think that Dairine might have been right all along.

            _I must really be going crazy,_ Nita thought with a laugh.  _I actually contemplated admitting to Dairine that she was right and I was wrong._

            The thing that bothered Nita the most about her transformed emotions was that she didn't see any way that they could be the fault of anyone but herself. 

            Kit sat down holding a large iced coffee drink, and Nita immediately severed her previous line of thought.  There was no use in pondering over the situation she was in.  It had become apparent that she wasn't going to get out of it today, but tomorrow might be different again.  She would just live today as she was.

            And hope that tomorrow _would_ be different, so that Nita would not have more of a reason to seriously doubt her sanity.

            Not wanting to be caught in her thoughts again, Nita fished around for a subject to talk about.  "That was a really nice spell back there," she told Kit.  "When did you have the time to write that one out?"

            Across the table, Kit took a slurp of his coffee.  Smiling, he said, "When I was supposed to be listening to my teacher's lecture in Biology."

            Nita stared at him, amazed and, at the same time, possessively proud.  She pushed the second reaction to the back of her mind with some effort, then replied, "You're getting good!  Writing that from scratch would have taken me an hour, easy."

            "Which is about how long the lecture lasted for," Kit said.  "I think that _that_ is the more amazing feat: an hour of discussing the immune system."  He shuddered, as if the memory was frightening.

            Nita smiled.  She enjoyed Biology, a fact that Kit took as proof of her insanity.  He teased her about it at every chance he got.

            But Nita knew how to get him back.  "Would you rather have been listening to an hour-long lecture on molecular structure?" she asked, referring to Kit's surety that he would enjoy Chemistry next year much more than Biology this year.

            Kit gave her a look that plainly said he'd rather listen to _two_ hours on molecular structure than bother with Biology again.  "Three more months," he muttered under his breath, "just three more months and I'm free!"

            Nita chuckled at the animosity in Kit's voice.  After the events of today, this ordinary conversation felt anticlimactic in the extreme.  Maybe she was just imagining things.

            Like how good-looking Kit was.  She was obviously imagining that.

            _Apparently not,_ Nita thought, hoping desperately that Rhiow would return before she managed to make a fool of herself.


	6. Guilt

A/N: Wow, I'm actually pretty much keeping up my promise to update weekly!  This would have been done yesterday, but my original story decided to jump up and start writing itself, so all fanfiction was pushed aside.  I know this probably sounds repetitive by now, but a sincere thank you goes out to all who have read and reviewed.  I really appreciate your feedback.

**Chapter 6: Guilt**

            Sighing, Nita walked into her house, closing the front door with more force than necessary and causing it to slam loudly against the doorframe.  _Well,_ she thought, trying to look on the bright side, _at least I made it home without making a _major _fool out of myself.  That's a good thing._

_            Isn't it?_

            Nita found that she wasn't sure of the answer.  Shrugging out of her jacket, she hung it up in the front closet, belatedly remembering that her manual was in the pocket and fishing it out.  In a state of uncertainty and confusion, she walked up the stairs and into her room, closing the door behind her and flopping down onto her bed with a frustrated groan.

            The thoughts had not stopped coming.  The feelings had not abated.  Nita spent a moment wishing that this was happening to anyone but her, but she quickly stopped. 

            She was going nowhere.  No matter how often she told herself this, it didn't seem to get her any closer to a plan of any kind.  It had usually worked in the past; Nita did not like being faced with her own lack of progress, and so usually all she needed to prod her to move forward was to see that she wasn't moving.  But here, this apparently wasn't enough.  "Sweet Powers, what have I done to deserve _this_?" she demanded of the surrounding space.  As usual, there was no answer.

            Nita knew there had to be one.  Though the universe appeared chaotic, she had learned in her time as a wizard that few things, if any, happened or existed without a purpose.  There was a purpose to her feelings, something out there that had caused them.  That something just wasn't being very cooperative in helping Nita get rid of the emotions.

            She spent a few unproductive moments trying to think logically before simply deciding to ignore the feelings for a little while longer and hope that they went away.  This, as she soon found, was easier said than done.  It seemed that nothing could distract her.  Again, Nita sighed.  _I seem to be doing a lot of that lately,_ she thought.  She should have known better than to try and take her mind from the problem.  Ignorance might be bliss for a while, but Nita knew that it usually ended up being terribly painful.  In the long run, knowledge was power, though it wasn't painless.

            She lay on her bed, eyes shut, and tried again to think of what could be affecting her.  Nita toyed with the idea that it might be due to the meddling of the Lone Power, but dismissed that idea almost immediately.  This didn't have the feel of that, and besides, the thoughts were definitely her own; she was sure that she would know if It was influencing her emotions.  Plus, she didn't see what It could gain from such an act.  Unless It wanted her to ruin her and Kit's partnership…

            Nita shook her head, keeping her mind from straying down that path.  The Lone One wasn't involved.  She would know if It was.

            That elimination left a very short list: some force Nita hadn't encountered yet in her wizardry—she didn't deny that there were many of those—or Nita herself.

            Just as Nita had resolved to look for help in her manual, she heard the bedroom door creak open.  Sitting up on her bed, she saw Dairine standing in the doorway, leaning against the doorframe with arms crossed.  Dairine looked at Nita and her expressions grew cloudy, a hint of worry evident in the lines of her mouth. 

            _Do I really look that frazzled?_ Nita thought.  _And if she can tell, could Kit?_  Not sure she wanted to know the answer to her second question, Nita spoke.  "Hey Dair," she said.  "What's up?"

            Dairine walked into the room, closing the door again behind her and sitting down in the chair at Nita's desk.  "Don't give me that," she said.  "There's something wrong.  I know it, you know it.  Spill."

            Nita knew it would do her no good to deny that there was something bothering her.  Dairine was amazingly perceptive of her sister's emotions, and wise for her years, always seeming to have a sensible answer to any problem.  The only problem Nita had now was figuring out how to phrase her situation without giving Dairine enough material to blackmail her for the rest of Nita's life, so she didn't think she could go to Dairine about that.

            After thinking a moment, she looked down at her hands and said, "Do you ever feel like your emotions aren't…yours?"  Chancing a look at Dairine rewarded Nita with a view of her overtly confused expression, so Nita continued.  "I don't know how to say it, exactly.  Lately, I've been feeling like there's someone else inside my skin.  But then I hear it coming and turn around—and there's nothing there but me," she finished lamely.

            Dairine sat still, a pondering look replacing the confusion.  Nita didn't move either, apprehensive.  Finally, Dairine spoke.

            "I can't say that I've ever felt anything like that," she said, her voice level and calm.  "But from what you've said, it _could_ be you.  I don't know what you should do.  Sorry."

            _She really _does _look sorry,_ Nita thought, slightly bewildered.  This was not the usual Dairine.  Either she was scared, or she knew something Nita didn't know, or both.

            "Listen, squirt," Nita said, her voice acquiring an overtone of threat.  "You better not be leaving anything out.  If I find out that you could have helped me, and you didn't…"  She trailed off into ominous silence.

            "I meant everything I said," Dairine replied, her voice not as cool as it had been.  "I hope you figure it out." 

            She got up and walked out of the room, leaving Nita even more confused than she had been before and less sure that there was anything she could do about it.

————————————————————————

            _What have I done?_ Dairine thought as she left her sister's room.  What had started as a fun joke seemed to have hit Nita harder than intended—much harder.  Nita had even risked telling Dairine about her feelings, in order to get her help on the matter.

            Dairine could help.  She could turn around, walk back into her sister's room, and admit to tampering with her name and causing all of Nita's distress.  She could even go out tonight once everyone was asleep and change Nita's name back to normal.  She knew that if she approached Nita about it, she would be grilled alive.  If she didn't, she'd feel guilty forever.

            _So, live guilt-free for ten more minutes or be silently sorry for the rest of my life,_ Dairine thought.  Neither option looked pleasant.

            But there was always the third option.  Dairine reached the door to her bedroom and walked inside, shutting it behind her.  She wished she knew what the third option was.


	7. Startling Revelations

A/N:  If I had remembered on Sunday that I hadn't updated this in a week, you would have had this chapter sooner.  But I didn't remember, so here it is today.  Be forewarned, I had a lot of fun writing this one.  (Insert maniacal laughter.)  The next chapter should be another…fun…one to write, and I'm hoping to have it up soon.  Until then, read and review!

**Chapter 7: Startling Revelations**

            Nita walked into the school cafeteria at lunch on Monday feeling better than she had in a while.  She hadn't seen Kit since Saturday, and was sure that whatever it was that was affecting her would have disappeared.  Plus, she had just aced a pop quiz in Biology.  She felt more content than she had all weekend.

            She scanned the cafeteria and saw that Kit wasn't there yet, so she went and sat at their usual table by the door to eat her lunch.

            She was halfway through her sandwich when she heard someone coming.  Thinking it was Kit, she turned around, but instead of seeing her friend, she saw a girl from her math class, Katherine.

            "Do you mind if I sit down?" she asked.

            Nita thought this a little odd, since Katherine had plenty of friends she usually ate with, but said, "Sure, have a seat."

            Katherine obliged, setting her lunch down in front of her.  Nita wracked her brain, trying to figure out where else she knew Katherine from.  Finally, Nita remembered.  She was in the same advanced history class as Kit.

            Trying to start a conversation, Nita asked, "How did you do on the math test on Friday?" 

            "Pretty good," Katherine said agreeably.  "You?"

            "Better than I thought," said Nita, still wondering why Katherine had come to sit with her.

            There was a moment of awkward silence before Katherine spoke.  "Um, Nita?  Do you think I could ask you a question?"

            Still a little confused, Nita said, "Sure."

            Katherine fidgeted, but looked straight at Nita.  "I wanted to know if you were planning on asking Kit to the dance."

            The look of utter shock on Nita's face must have startled Katherine, for she quickly added, "I know he says there's nothing between you, but I didn't know how true that was…I mean, you're always hanging out…"  She took a deep breath.  "I didn't want to ask him if you were planning to."

            If Nita had been shocked before, it was nothing to how she felt now.  In an instant, Nita's vision of Katherine had changed.  She had gone from being the girl two seats behind Nita in math to the girl who wanted to steal Kit.

            Nita had, in the past, idly considered what it would be like when she and Kit started dating other people.  In the past, it had seemed like something far away, an indistinct nuisance that they would somehow manage to avoid or skip over.  But now, hearing Katherine's interest, the menace was much closer at hand.  Katherine was a nice girl, and Nita knew that the students in Kit's history class had bonded over a lot of funny moments and inside jokes that made no sense when Kit tried to explain them to Nita.  It wasn't like Katherine and Kit had nothing in common.  Kit could, conceivably, be as interested in Katherine as she was in him.

            _Not if I have anything to say about it!_ Nita thought, and before she had a chance to do anything else, she said, "I'm sorry, Katherine.  I've been waiting for the right time to ask him."

            "Oh," Katherine said, "thanks for telling me."  And she got up and rejoined her friends.

            It was about then that Nita realized what she had just said.  Wanting to scream but miraculously controlling herself, she forced herself to think about what she had told Katherine.  It didn't get any better as she thought about it.  Not only had she said the unthinkable—she had _meant_ it.  For that one moment, she had been completely truthful about her intentions.

            Nita let out a small moan, her head hitting the lunch table.  She didn't know what to do.  It looked to her like she had only one choice left.

            She would have to tell Kit.

————————————————————————

            Kit sagged against the wall outside the cafeteria door.  His mind was racing.  Had he just heard Nita say what he _thought_ he had just heard Nita say?  And yet, how could he have mistaken her words?  He had been only yards away from her when she said them.

            This left only one thing: he _had_ heard Nita say exactly what he had both hoped and dreaded she would say.  He had heard her admit that she liked him—or at least, that she intended to ask him to the school's Sadie Hawkins dance.  But at this moment, to Kit, the two were one and the same.

            His mind racing like a hamster on a wheel, and going about as far, Kit walked away from the cafeteria, suddenly not hungry.  He dropped by his locker to pick up the books he needed for his last classes of the day, performing the task without thinking about it.  There were other, more important things to think about.

            _Okay,_ Kit thought, trying to calm down, _let's look at the facts._  Nita had told Katherine that she planned on asking Kit to the dance only after Katherine had declared her intentions.  Maybe Nita had some reason for Kit not to go out with Katherine, and had lied to keep her from asking him.

            Immediately, Kit brushed this from his mind.  Nita was a wizard.  She couldn't lie, not without taking numerous risks.  Therefore, what she had said had been true.  She was planning to ask him to the dance.  She was waiting for the right moment.

            She liked him.

            Kit's insides turned, not sure what they felt about this.  Kit knew what he felt—at least, for the most part.  If there was any girl he would ever be interested in having a relationship with, it was Nita.  But he had never been sure of her feelings, and had always ignored his.  They were both young.  If _that_ was to happen, there was plenty of time for it to happen in, and he had not worried about it.

            But now, faced with the prospect of Nita acting on her feelings, Kit was a little squeamish.  Another reason he had always had for mentally postponing any relationship between them was that he felt they were too young for it to last.  Nita was the one person he could imagine spending the rest of his life with, but he doubted that that would happen if the rest of his life began now.  _Give it a couple more years as friends, _he always thought.  He valued Nita dearly as a friend; he wanted it to stay that way, even if it meant nothing else came of it.

            And now she liked him.

            He sighed.  _How is it,_ he thought, _that I can manipulate space and time, visit alien planets, talk to animals, and continue to defeat the one who created death, all with minimal worry—and still be so worried about this?_  _Why?_

            The answer was easier to find than he had thought it would be.  _Because it's Nita I'm worried about._


	8. Nita's Note

A/N: I think this is a record. Less than a week between updates! This is a short chapter, but it has to be because of the way things are currently sequenced. Hopefully, the next chapter will be long. I certainly have enough stuff I want to cram in there! I'm going to try and write it this weekend and post it around the beginning of next week. Until then, please read and review! Oh, and I would also really appreciate it if you read either of my other YW fics. Thanks!

And I just found that my formatting isn't working the way it's supposed to! Phooey. But I'm posting this anyway. I'll worry about fixing it later.

**Chapter 8: Nita's Note**

"Nita? Could you answer the question?"

The sound of her English teacher's voice dragged Nita out of her cyclic thoughts. Her head jerked up, and she saw Mr. Simmons standing right in front of her desk. _This is a bad time to have a last name near the beginning of the alphabet,_ Nita thought, looking up at her teacher from her seat in the front of the room. "I'm sorry," said Nita timidly, "what was the question again?"

Mr. Simmons repeated the easy plot question, which Nita answered with little thought before going back to what she had been doing, which was infinitely harder than remembering what had happened in _Great Expectations_.

Shielded by the desk, her manual lay open to the messaging pages. She looked back down, carefully scrutinizing the note she had been composing. Her decision to tell Kit about what she had been going through had lifted off the pressure, but she still had to get him somewhere they could talk things through. Nita didn't want to do it at either of their houses; any of their family could accidentally stumble into the conversation—_if it stays a conversation,_ Nita thought. She was hoping Kit would react nobly and help her fix her problem, but there was always the chance that he would get caught off-guard by what it was she wanted him to help her fix.

She had eventually decided that the moon was the best place for it. No one else would be there to interfere, and Kit would have to hear her out unless he wanted to draw up a transit spell and go home. Besides, they had thought over many a conflict there in the past. It was somewhere familiar.

Nita looked at the words that shimmered on the page of her manual:

_Kit,_

_ There's something I need to talk to you about. Can you be at our special spot half an hour after school's out? It's kind of urgent._

She wanted it to sound foreboding enough that he would come, and that he would be ready for something unexpected. She didn't want him to be completely unprepared. Looking at the note, she added, _Please__ let me know if you can make it_, before signing her name. Taking a deep breath, she sent the note just as the bell rang. Only one more class, and she could see Kit. One more boring class before they would figure this all out.

_There's no going back now._

————————————————————————

Kit sat down in his history class, the last class of the day, and automatically reached into his backpack for his textbook. Seeing Katherine walk in the door reminded him of the conversation he had overheard, and so when his hand brushed against his manual inside his pack, it took him a moment to realize that the covers were buzzing. He had a message.

There was a very short list of people who would use the manual's messaging system to contact him. Even those who could rarely did. The only person who messaged him with any frequency was Nita.

Kit's first reaction was to forget about the message until after class, but some unknown force insisted that it could be urgent. He looked at his watch. He still had a few minutes before class began.

With unusual trepidation, Kit took his manual from his backpack and leafed through to the back pages where incoming message were saved. There was only one message, on the first page. His eyes flicked down to the signature before he read the letter. Nita. _She wouldn't ask me out like _this_, would she?_ he wondered idly. He looked at the timestamp. She had barely sent the message five minutes ago.

Finally, Kit brought himself to read the message.

_Kit,_

_ There's something I need to talk to you about. Can you be at our special spot half an hour after school's out? It's kind of urgent. Please let me know if you can make it._

_Nita_

Kit sat shocked, looking at the book in his hands. Something she needed to talk to him about. Something kind of urgent. Something important enough that she didn't want to talk at home, but instead asked him to meet her at their "special spot" on the moon, with the view of the Carpathian Mountains. He gulped, reminding his lungs to breathe. This could mean only one thing. She was going to ask him. This was the "right time" she had talked to Katherine about.

He could just forget to reply. He could leave the message in the back of his manual. He could escape all the hassle.

But he couldn't, not really. It would be a lie. He couldn't ignore Nita's request. She was his friend. It could be that she needed to talk to him about something completely unrelated. She could have changed her mind and decided against asking him after all.

_And the Lone Power could become a Girl Scout troop leader,_ Kit thought sarcastically. No, he knew why Nita wanted to see him. He also knew that he had to go, as her friend, no matter what it was that she wanted to talk to him about. He knew that he would always help her if he could. He also knew that, if he had asked, she would do the same.

He sent his reply just as his teacher strode to the front of the room to begin the class. It was short—in fact, it was only three words—but he thought it was enough. And it would always, _always_ be the truth, no matter what Nita asked of him.

_I'll be there._


	9. The Truth

A/N: I know it's short. I know it doesn't advance the plot much. And I know it's been forever since I last updated. But I had to post this, because if I didn't I would forget about writing more and the time between updates would increase. To anyone who's been waiting for a long time, I'm sorry. I started writing fanfiction as a break from my original story, and I write fanfics when my original writing feels like work. Therefore, when I write fanfic, it should never, _ever_ feel like work. If it does, I'm doing something wrong. For the longest time, this was feeling like work. But it's finally feeling like a great deal of fun, so expect more updates soon; I want this finished before school starts! Anyway, enough said, and on to the story.

**Chapter 9: The Truth**

The moon was quiet. It always was; sound could not cross the vacuum of space. But even when there _was_ some noise to be heard—when wizards discussed objectives within their stolen bubbles of air, or (less frequently) when astronauts chatted with each other within their spaceships—the moon was a contemplative place, perfect for sitting and thinking.

The place where Nita was sitting and thinking was, in her opinion, a better place to sit and think in than the rest. The view of Earth was especially clear from here; the marbled blue-green planet spun softly through space, seemingly just at the edge of the foreshortened horizon. It was a view Nita would never get over, though at this moment, her thoughts were not focused on it. Instead of becoming philosophical over the fantastic sight, she was busy trying to think of a way to start her discussion with Kit.

_What would be worse, _she thought idly, _me telling him that I like him, or me telling him that I don't _want_ to like him and would appreciate it greatly if he could help me stop?_ She sighed, the soft sound remaining trapped within the confines of the air she had taken with her. It was looking more and more like a lose-lose situation every second. But Kit would be here soon, and she had to think up _something_ to say!

Or did she? The thought struck her as odd, at first, but something about it made Nita reexamine the idea. Did she really have to think of a way to make it seem all right when it so obviously wasn't? Kit had always stuck with her in the past through seemingly unsolvable situations, being the optimistic one—the blindingly optimistic one, in some cases. A sad smile graced Nita's features as her thoughts were drawn back to his reaction those years ago when she'd explained to him exactly what she was expected to do as the Silent Lord in the Song of the Twelve. He had refused to even think of the possibility that they wouldn't both make it out okay.

_In the end, he was right,_ she thought. _We both _did_ make it out okay._ Nita had often wondered about this; events seemed to have worked out far better than she ever could have imagined. Though Ed had died in her place, it had been a substitution the giant shark had welcomed. Everything had ended up just as Kit had said it would—with Nita explaining things to her parents, while Kit listened and ate.

_Maybe,_ Nita thought for the first time, _it worked out that way _because _Kit said that it would. Wizards can't lie…_ It was definitely something to think about.

Meanwhile, Nita was no closer to finding a way to break things gently to Kit than she had been when she started. _What if it just _can't_ be broken gently?_ she though, exasperated. To try and make her current condition seem sensible would be a kind of a lie, and that was territory Nita didn't want to get caught in. She was already worried about what she had told Katherine in the cafeteria, about waiting for the right time to ask Kit to the dance. She was hoping that it would be enough for the Powers that it had been the truth when she had said it; at that moment, she had seriously intended to ask Kit.

_That's the problem with the truth,_ Nita thought. _It can change. Some things are black and white, but most things only come in shades of gray, and this is one of those. And intentions change all the time. What might be a truthful confession one minute becomes an out-and-out lie the next._

_ Which is why we have to do our best to tell it the way it is, here and now._ Resolved, Nita decided that she would simply tell it to Kit as it was. There was no other course of action that would not seriously compromise either her wizardry or their friendship.

With this finally settled, she sat back and looked up at the sky. It was dark—it always was, though the sun blazed noonday high in the distance, and her shadow stood sharp by her feet—but it was full of stars. Looking at them, Nita could have almost convinced herself that she was back at home, sitting in her backyard and looking up at the stars. If it hadn't been for the sight of the far-off Earth, instead of the moon, and the differing placement of stars, she might not have noticed. But those small details contrived to make her feel even further away from home than she really was. The past days' events had pushed her out of her comfort zone; this meeting here would be the ultimate proof of that.

Still, she would have rather not seen Kit appear moments later, still in his school clothes. He walked up to her, pausing for a minute to let his bubble of air merge with hers, before sitting down beside her. "So," he said, almost casually but with a hint of anticipation, "what's up?"

_Well, he did ask,_ Nita thought, before beginning to tell him.


	10. Whodunit?

A/N: Well, I told you to expect updates soon, didn't I? Another short one, I know, but at least this time the plot goes somewhere! I think there's maybe one or two chapters and an epilogue left to write, all of which should be very fun. They'll take longer than this, because I have summer reading I'm supposed to be doing, but I really am going to try having this done within the next two weeks. And I know that the previous chapter spent too long focusing on one thing, but I also knew when I was writing it yesterday that if I didn't write a full chapter and post it, I would not get back to this story for another couple of weeks. Some of the same goes for this chapter. I probably could have done better if I'd spent more time on it, but the truth is that I don't have more time to spend. Maybe I'll come back to this story someday after I've finished it and fix up things like that. Until then, I thank everyone for sticking with me and continuing to review! I don't know what I'd do without you guys. (Especially you, Jasen Morgan! My Captain's advice is always welcome.)

**Chapter 10: Whodunit?**

Kit sat in silence, waiting politely for Nita to speak. He knew that, whatever she said, he would stay here and listen.

"This might sound a bit weird," she finally began, "but please, hear me out before you do anything…?" She looked at him for acknowledgement, her eyes pleading with him to agree.

"I promise," he said formally, still nervous, but trying not to let it show, not in front of Nita, who was obviously just as anxious as he was—if not more. He could not break such a promise, not just because he was a wizard but because she was his friend and deserved his respect. Nita knew that, and relaxed visibly upon hearing his words.

And then she told him. "A bit weird" did not even begin to do the situation justice, in Kit's opinion. It was, without a doubt, the weirdest thing he had ever run across, on errantry or off—if "weird" could even suffice as a description. The only thing that kept him silent during Nita's calm explanation of her sudden feelings for him was the thought that, however hard this was for him, it had to be at least a thousand times harder for her, and any interruption o his part would undoubtedly make it worse.

"I don't know why it's happening," she said finally, staring off at the gently revolving Earth. "I don't think it's me, but I can't think of what else it _could_ be." Cautiously, she looked at Kit, for the first time since the start of her explanation. "Help me?" she asked simply.

Not trusting his voice, Kit nodded. How could he even consider doing anything else? She was, above all else, his friend. If he could help her in any way, he would. So he sat, trying to sort out everything she'd said, looking for something, _anything_ that might hint at a solution. Beside him, Nita waited, immersed in a similar silence.

Finally he asked, "So this all started Saturday at Grand Central?" Mutely, Nita nodded. "Do you remember anything odd happening Saturday morning? Or maybe even Friday?" he continued, hoping that she would remember something.

"Nothing Saturday," Nita said. "It was pretty normal. I woke up late, ate, transited to Grand Central. Friday…" She paused, thinking. "School was normal. I took a few tests. I thought I did really well on the math test."

"That certainly counts as odd," Kit said, trying to be humorous. Nita just glared at him and continued.

"I got home, went upstairs, read a little, ate dinner, watched TV, went to sleep. And that's it; I really don't remember anything else." She sighed. "I feel like one of those suspects in the old crime movies."

" 'Where were you on the morning of April the first?' " Kit asked pompously, in the manner of old TV detectives.

He'd expected a laugh, or at least a smile from her. He got neither. Nita went rigid, and Kit could see her mouth open in shock. "What," he asked, "did I do _that_ good of an impression?"

She looked at him. "April first," she said simply. "April Fool's was Saturday."

Kit couldn't quite see where this was going, but remained silent. It looked to him like Nita was on to something.

"She was talking to me about it," Nita muttered under her breath. "The little twerp! When I find her, I'm gonna…" She turned to Kit. "I've got to go," she said. "I think I know who's behind this." She knelt down, traced a spell in the whitish moon dust, then stood up and brushed off her pants. "Dairine is gonna pay," she said before reciting the spell and vanishing from sight.

————————————————————————

Nita appeared in her backyard with a louder _pop!_ of displaced air than normal. She didn't care. There was only one thing on her mind, and that one thing was her conniving, malicious, good-for-nothing younger sister. How she had not seen from the start that this was Dairine's meddling, Nita had no idea. She had even neglected to remember that Saturday had been April Fool's, the day on which Dairine customarily pranked Nita because it was the one day she had an excuse for it. _I don't care what excuse she gives me,_ Nita thought, swiftly crossing the backyard and entering the back door. _Nothing could excuse away this._

Especially since Nita was sure Dairine had used wizardry to pull this particular prank. There was something so _wrong_ about that that Nita was surprised the Powers hadn't swooped down on Dairine on the spot and begun to scold her in person. Nita was only too pleased to administer that scolding in the Powers' place. She stormed upstairs and forcefully swung open the door to her sister's bedroom.

Dairine, who was sitting at her desk and copying math problems out of a textbook, looked up at the noise. Seeing the expression on Nita's face, Dairine flinched, her own features betraying her fear. "Nita—" she began tentatively, but her sister cut her off.

"You have got some _major_ explaining to do."


	11. Uh Oh

A/N: I think (though I'm not completely sure) that this is the second-to-last chapter of this fic! I can't believe I managed to stick with it this long. I know I wouldn't have, without the support of my awesome bunch of readers and reviewers. Special kudos go to viper676, alex, Reana, elfin2, and Shima And Tempis, all of whom have reviewed fairly consistently from the start. And, of course, I would be nowhere without my good pal Jasen Morgan, whom I bounce ideas off of mercilessly. Hope you don't have to bloody up this one, captain! Have fun reading, and I will hopefully have the next chapter up by Monday.

**Chapter 11: Uh-Oh**

It was like being eaten alive—except that Dairine thought that might have been a bit more pleasant. She revised her opinion. It was like being painfully digested for a thousand years before finally dying.

And it hadn't even started yet.

Nita sat stiffly on Dairine's bed, looking at her with an evil eye to shame a basilisk. In turn, Dairine could not bring herself to look at her sister. Neither could she bring herself to talk her way out of this one. Nita had been through enough. Dairine would answer her questions and take her punishment.

"I know what you did," Nita said unnecessarily; Dairine couldn't think of any other reason her sister would have to barge into her room and demand an explanation. "But I don't know how you did it, and I'd like to know that, right after you fix it!" she continued, anger coursing through her voice.

Dairine nodded. "Do you have your name with you?"

Nita's eyes widened, and she looked at Dairine with an increased disgust. "You tampered with my _name_?!" she almost screamed. "And the Powers didn't do _anything_? Lord, Dairine, what were you thinking!"

_I'll take that as a no,_ Dairine thought. It didn't matter; she had saved a copy of Nita's name to Spot after she'd made her changes. Spot obligingly scuttled onto her desk and flipped up his lid to show a screenful of the graceful Speech. A minute's toggling, and Dairine had the physical representation of her sister's personality laid down on the floor of her room.

She scanned over it, looking for the part she had changed. It hadn't been much; in fact, Dairine had been shocked at the ease with which she'd been able to effect such a behavioral change in Nita. Finally she found what she was looking for. "This is the section I modified," Dairine said, keeping her voice steady. It was difficult, with Nita breathing down her neck like some avenging dragon, but she managed.

"Change it back," Nita said, rage still openly evident.

Dairine nodded. She pulled a pen from her desk and uncapped it. Then, at the beginning of the section of Nita's name that was involved with romantic relationships, she inserted a new character in the Speech: a slight, filled curve, representing a closed eye. Instantly, the characters immediately following it, the ones that told of Nita's interest in Kit, faded into invisibility. The rest of Nita's name shifted to fill in the now-empty space.

Dairine wound the name back up into its usual tight ball of words in the Speech and handed it back to Nita, who was for the first time in this encounter not looking exclusively angry. "That's it?" she asked, sounding almost puzzled. "What happened to all of those other characters?"

"They're hidden from you," Dairine said, having looked up this particular effect on her own. "And, since they're hidden from you, they're hidden from those who know you. But they're still there. All a wizard would have to do to make them visible is to open that eye."

Nita looked at her with a mixed expression. "You swear that this is the only thing you did?"

"I swear," Dairine said, the overtones of the Speech evident in her proclamation. She switched back to English to say, "All you need to do is use that in a spell, and you should be back to normal."

Nita was silent, as if uncertain how to respond. Finally, much of the anger gone from her voice, she looked at Dairine and asked, "Why?"

Dairine wasn't sure how to answer. She didn't want to get Nita angry again, when she had just calmed down. "I wanted to pull a good April Fool's prank on you," she said evasively. Well, it was part of the truth.

"I doubt that's all of it," Nita said.

Dairine sighed. "Okay, so it's not. I really thought that you were being dumb, not admitting you liked Kit." _And you were,_ she added silently to herself. "But I think that I was dumber, to think I could make you see what you didn't want to," she added, finding that it was completely true. "If you want to open your eyes, you've got to do it for yourself."

The last remark had probably unbalanced Nita, Dairine thought. There was no other way she would have simply walked out of Dairine's room, saying nothing more than "I've got to go tell Kit" and not making good on any of the threats she had attacked Dairine with. Against all the odds, Dairine smiled. She might not be able to open Nita's eyes for her, but at least she could point her in the right direction.

Dairine had been sorely tempted to remind Nita that the first spell she had done with the changed version of her name would not have worked if the change had been too large. The fact that the first spell _had_ worked was more indication of Nita's true feelings than anything else. But Dairine knew she was treading on thin ice with her sister at the moment, and had decided not to mention it.

It was at that point that Spot, his case still open on her desk, said very plaintively, "Uh-oh."

————————————————————————

Nita sat in her room, holding the fixed version of her name in one hand and looking down at it. Why wasn't she mad at Dairine any more? She had every right to be furious with her younger sister. And yet…

_And yet, I know that she was right._ The thought resounded through her consciousness. Dairine was right? Since when had she ever admitted that? Though she had to admit, the evidence here was pointing disturbingly in that direction. Nita had been sure that Dairine had meddled with her on such a level that it would take an immense spell to undo, but she had been wrong. It had only taken a pen, and a single added character in the Speech.

_It would take even less to change it back again,_ a voice inside her head said. _All you have to do is open that eye…_

Nita realized that voice as not being completely hers. Then she remembered she would have to use her changed name in a spell for its effects to take place.

Then, she realized quite belatedly that she had left Kit on the moon without any explanation. _Well,_ she thought as she drew up the transit spell that would take her back to the moon, _at least now I've got an explanation to give._ She uncoiled the ball of her name, attached it to the proper place in the spell, and drew the Wizard's Knot. Then she recited the words in the Speech and vanished.


	12. Eyes Wide Shut

A/N: Well, folks, this is it! The end of my first chaptered fanfiction work. As far as endings go, I think it's a pretty good one—not necessarily typical of a romance fic, but I think it turns out realistically. Thanks to all of my reviewers, and to those of you who review this chapter, I'd especially like to know what you think of this as an ending point. If I write any more on this, it'll be an epilogue concerning how exactly the Powers might end up punishing Dairine. Then again, I've been writing these characters for a while now, and they're still running through my head, so I'll probably have a random bout of insanity and write some sort of sequel. Until then, thanks for reading—and for being patient with me while I worked on getting this last chapter up!

**Chapter 12: Eyes Wide Shut**

_Turmoil_. Nita spun in and out of space and time, being torn in more directions than she should have been. _It's just a simple transit spell!_ she thought in protest. _What could have gone wrong?_ The blackness had no answer for her but to heave disconcertingly. Being stuck between here and there was not something Nita had experienced in the past, and now she knew it was not something she wanted to experience again. At times, she could almost see her destination, but it was as though a thick cloth had been draped over her eyes.

Then it hit her. _My name!_ This was the first spell she had done with her new name, and the spell was resisting, trying to reject the change. _That's not how it's supposed to be!_ Nita screamed silently at the universe. _This isn't who I am! The other name is the right one!_

The universe did not respond in quite the way she had hoped for. She felt an unknown pressure from all sides, pushing her onward and inward and forward and back until she wasn't sure which way was the right way anymore. _A spell always works!_ she told herself sternly, focusing her will, forcing it in a calculated strike through the pressing darkness—

The chaos burst, dissolving off into thousands of tiny pieces, and Nita found herself standing on the moon again and feeling more glad to be there than any other time she'd come, except for perhaps her first visit. She had barely regained her bearings when she saw Kit, who was rising from his seat on a nearby rock and hurrying towards her, his expression worried.

He barely paused, letting their air bubbles merge, before saying, "Are you all right? What just happened? It felt like you were here, but you weren't…" He trailed off.

It was Nita's turn to calm down Kit, and she took great pleasure in finally being the one who had all the answers. Her struggle to keep the spell from rejecting the old version of her name (or new, depending on how you looked at it) had unnerved her, but she was feeling confidently herself again, and wasn't going to spend too much time worrying about how she had gotten that way. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said, taking a deep breath.

"As in, completely fine?" Kit asked cautiously. "You fixed your…problem?"

"Looks like it," Nita said. "As far as I can tell, I'm back to normal."

Kit let out a small sigh of what Nita thought was relief, but couldn't be sure. "That's great!" he said. Then, gesturing back at the boulder he'd been sitting on, said, "Care to explain it? Or do I get to play Twenty Questions?"

Nita chuckled, so pleased to have her relationship with Kit back on good terms—at least, terms she was used to. "I don't know; I always liked Twenty Questions," she said as she walked over and sat down.

The odd tension of the past few days gone, Nita comfortably related the whole story to Kit. Well, most of it—she left out exactly what Dairine had done to her name; she wasn't quite sure what she thought about those feelings yet, and whether or not she could reconcile her current self with them. She certainly didn't want to explain all of _that_ to Kit. He probably had had enough of her mixed up feelings to last him for quite a while.

When Nita was done with her explanation, Kit let out a sigh. "Wow. Your sister really is too conniving for her own good."

"Tell me about it," Nita replied. "I'm still amazed that she succeeded with her tampering in the first place."

"I agree," Kit said, a perplexed look on his face. "I mean, look at what the Powers did when she signed you up for that cultural exchange program—and that was just for not telling you or your dad about it! You'd think that messing with another wizard's _name_ would call for some discipline. Like, oh, the wizardly equivalent of drawing and quartering."

"Kit!" Nita said in mock horror. "Would you really do that to Dairine?"

"You wouldn't?"

"As much as I'm inclined to quite often," Nita grimaced, "I am under Oath to 'guard growth and ease pain.' Somehow, I don't think drawing and quartering would be conducive to character growth, and it would most certainly violate the pain part."

Kit laughed. "Wasn't really thinking of it that way. You're right." They lapsed into silence, but not a tense one like there had been between them before. Now, everything was out in the open and back to normal—as normal as it ever got if you were a wizard.

After a while, Kit spoke, breaking the silence. "Nita?"

"Yeah?"

"You know what you said in the cafeteria today? To Katherine?"

Nita's face went white. "She told you?" she asked incredulously.

"I kind of overheard," Kit said, turning away. "I just thought you should know I had. And that I know it wasn't really you talking," he said, forestalling anything Nita might have said.

There was a short silence, then, "Thanks," she said bashfully. "Really, thank you. I think you're probably the only person who would understand—" She was cut off as Kit jumped to his feet, his manual falling off of his lap. "What's up?" she asked, concerned.

In answer, Kit picked up his manual and dusted it off, then turned to the messaging section at the back. "From Tom," he said. " 'Tried to reach you at home first. Something important has come up. If you and Nita can come over, we'll brief you on it.' "

Nita smiled and shook her head, then got her own manual, its covers also buzzing, out of her jacket pocket. However, instead of flipping to the messaging section, she turned to the directory that listed all of the wizards in the New York area. She skimmed down the list for her name, eventually finding it:

CALLAHAN, Juanita L.  
243 E. Clinton Avenue  
Hempstead, NY 11575  
(516) 555-6786  
power rating: 6.79 /- 0.4  
_On active status_

She scanned through the directory to Kit's entry, finding his status to be the same as hers. Nita closed her manual and turned to Kit.

"On active?" he asked.

"Both of us," she replied.

Kit's face now wore a wry smile to match Nita's own. "Well, then, let's see what the universe has decided to throw at us this time."

With an ease born of practice, together they drew up the transit spell that would take them to Tom and Carl's house. They began to recite the spell, racing to see who could speak the words of the Speech faster, each outguessing the other so that they sped up in unison. And as Nita marveled inwardly at that perfect harmony their voices always seemed to form, she was overwhelmingly glad to have Kit as her solid, dependable partner, in wizardry and in life, now and always.


End file.
